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Relocating homeless
trumps need for park
Despite disagreeing with the FAA’s intentions, I understand the need to comply with their demands to relocate the camp residents as outlined in Marisa Kendall’s article (“Airport homeless camp could become dog park,” Page B1, Feb. 10). However, I feel uneasy with the city’s plan to replace the camp with a new park.
The unhoused are some of the most vulnerable in this pandemic. Although Mayor Sam Liccardo expressed a desire to put the camp inhabitants first, I fail to understand why it’s necessary to replace the camp with a potentially costly park. If it is so important to relocate the residents of the camp to comply with FAA orders, why not alter the plan for the park in order to allocate more funds into housing solutions? Shouldn’t the needs of the residents trump the desire for a park? Not only would this benefit the population of the airport camp, but it could have broader effects for San Jose’s unhoused population.
Rebecca Voss
San Jose
Political extremes
tearing nation apart
I am a moderate Republican appalled by the Trump supporters leading the party these days. Rameysh Ramdas’ (“Sen. Paul shows GOP in need of cleansing,” Page A6, Feb. 17) and Neil Bonke’s (“Moderate Republicans could rescue party,” Page A6, Feb. 10) letters made me think of three quotes.
The first quote is from Ronald Reagan, a big tent Republican, “Freedom is … never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.” The second is from Stealers Wheel: “Clowns to the left of me. Jokers to the right.” The third is from Mad Eye Moody in “Harry Potter”: “Constant vigilance.”
Our democracy demands all of our best efforts to protect for our children and grandchildren that which we take for granted. Neither extreme has a majority of public support, and both need swing voters and moderates to carry any election. Maybe it’s time for something new. Maybe it’s time for a centrists’ Third Party.
Dave Riggs
Aptos
Wrong time to relax
COVID masking rules
Re. “Is Bay Area embracing the looser mask rule?” Page A1, Feb. 17:
The Bay Area has consistently failed its cities in its fight against COVID-19. According to the article, those who have received the COVID vaccine do not have to wear masks inside businesses and public offices, as a result of the latest COVID peak in winter just beginning to settle.
However, this ignores the fact that COVID is still rampant, and the relaxation of the mask mandate comes across as a letdown. Unvaccinated people can access a mask-required site without a mask because no one will be checking to see if they are current on their vaccinations.
As a member of the community, I’ve grown more frustrated by the regular relaxation of mask and vaccination rules, due to temporary lows in cases, that do more harm than good.
Jenny Dang
San Jose
State’s senators aren’t
focused on constituents
Re. “Poll: Support for Sen. Dianne Feinstein drops to career-low,” Feb. 11:
No kidding. She has become totally unresponsive. The same for Sen. Alex Padilla.
I have written to each of them twice and even called Padilla’s office asking for his opinion on Sen. Jon Ossoff’s bill S 3494 to ban congressional stock trading. Nothing from either of them. We don’t send people there to get rich on insider trading. We send them there to do our work. Neither of these people are doing that now.
Rep. Anna Eshoo on the other hand is doing a fabulous job. As of now, our senators need to refocus or find new work.
David Perrino
Los Altos
Costly bullet train
should be abandoned
Re. “No plan yet for California’s rising bullet train price tag,” Page A7, Feb. 17:
Fourteen years ago, the cost of the high-speed rail project was estimated at $33 billion. Today, $100 billion.
The price keeps rising, and we don’t have a bullet train. Scrap the project and run a monorail down the center of Interstate 5, since the environmental lobbyists won’t add necessary lanes. Let’s stop being stupid and throwing money away.
Walt Disney built a monorail system 65 years ago to show Southern California it could be done. But doing that now would eliminate special treatment and payouts to important friends of California politicians.
Jay Morrett
San Jose
